Open Your Eyes
by fearlessgurl283
Summary: A post-war fic, but not what you think.......Fire, fire had destroyed it all, had ravaged the world, destroying everything in its path. Everything, she thought with a sudden realization, everything but the tree. She glanced up, her tears slowly ceasing...


**Title**: Open Your Eyes  
**Word count**: 621 **Rating**: G **Warnings**: abstractness and implied images **  
****Notes**: This was specifically written for one pairing—and there is an image/symbol that connects the pairing to this one-shot—but you really can think of this as any pairing you want to. (Hint for the symbol: what _else_ is in the story besides the two people? And would the idea of _rope_ and _a necklace_ help with the symbolism?)

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Open Your Eyes**

The tree stood there alone, its shadow flickering alone in the dusk. There was no longer a river to run by it—all the water had dried up from the fire or from being used to fight the fire. There were no more other trees nearby to rustle branches—all the rest had burned down. The tree was alone in the middle of nowhere now, its once full branches bare of leaves or buds. _And yet it was still there, the one last thing left in the barren world._

She stepped gingerly over to the tree, placing a hand on its well worn bark. A tear escaped her eye and she made no effort to brush it away, letting it slowly drip down her cheek.

She was overcome with a rush of memories, both old and new. They made their way into her head in chronological order, the oldest ones coming first before slowly being replaced by the new ones. Soon dread overcame her as the last memory played itself over and over again in her head, her last memory of _him_. She held out for as long as she could, holding back tears, as the image of his last moments became more and more vivid.

Eventually she no longer could take it and abruptly fell to the ground sobbing.

"Why? Why? _Why_?" She moaned, her words being drowned out by her tears. The images became blurred, no longer decipherable. She no longer cared though—there was nothing left for her to care _about_; there was nothing left _at all_. Fire, _fire_ had destroyed it all, had ravaged the world, destroying everything in its path.

Everything, she thought with a sudden realization, _everything but the tree_. She glanced up, her tears slowly ceasing. It was what had started it all, and it had survived through it all—through _everything_. Scarred, yes, she realized as she put a hand to its bark and felt the charred top layer—but still there, still _living_. It made her realize that she too could get past it all, that she still could live on, even through his death.

She stood up and was just about to turn around when a voice behind her broke the silence.

"I can't believe that tree is still standing, especially after everything that happened."

The voice was so familiar, so warm—and yet it wasn't _possible_; it just couldn't be, could it?

She spun around and almost fell over from shock at the image before her, at the _person_ standing before her.

"How…I thought you were dead! _I saw you die with my own eyes_!" She exclaimed as she stood there, frozen in place from shock.

He took long, sweeping strides in her direction, shortening the distance between them with every step. When he was only a foot from her she realized that it really and truly was him; he was _alive_.

"Sometimes," he murmured as he softly grabbed both of her cheeks with his hands, "We are so focused on seeing one thing that we are blind to everything that really matters. Sometimes you just have to _believe._" He stroked her cheekbones with his hands before stopping, a small smile on his face.

"And sometimes, it helps if you never died in the first place."

A grin slowly worked its way onto her face as well as she continued to look upon his handsome face.

"I will never leave you, I promise." He said softly, words so clichéd that any other time she would have laughed it off and teased him for saying such. But now? It didn't matter that the world had almost been completely destroyed or that he could die the next day. They were together, he was _alive_. Nothing else mattered. And so she did the one last thing that was left for her to do.

_She believed._


End file.
